The present invention relates to animal leashes and, more particularly, to an improved hand-held apparatus which dispenses, retracts and locks an animal leash in a desired position.
As is well known, it is customary practice to utilize a leash when exercising domestic pets such as dogs. Typically, prior art leashes have comprised an elongate chain or leather strap having one end adapted to be attached to the animal and the other end formed in a looped configuration adapted to be grasped by the hand of the user. By maintaining a grip on the looped end of the leash, the user may restrain the animal within suitable limits of the user. Although such prior art leashes have proven generally effective for their intended purpose, they possess inherent deficiencies which have detracted from their overall effectiveness.
Foremost of these deficiencies associated with the prior art leashes has been their inability to provide means for rapidly increasing or decreasing the length of the leash to suit the particular animal control situation. As such, it has heretofore been common practice for a user to wind the leash about his or her hand which is typically difficult to accomplish and often causes discomfort to the user's hand. Further, the prior art leashes have been highly susceptible to becoming tangled and have proven awkward in use often becoming wrapped about trees, fence posts, limbs and the like. In addition, due to their substantial length, the prior art leashes have been difficult to store in an organized manner when not in use.
Although these above-referenced deficiencies have been recognized to a limited extent in the prior art, the proposed retractable animal leash devices to date such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,693,595 Croce, et al, 2,919,676 Schneider, 2,647,703 Hayes, 2,222,409 Goattleib, 3,233,591 Rogers, et al, 4,018,189 Umphries, et al, 4,202,510 Stanish, 4,269,150 McCarthy, 557,832 Knight, 2,250,171 Wilkins, and 2,314,504 Lifchultz have either comprised extremely complicated devices which have been expensive to purchase and difficult to manipulate during operation or structurally unsound devices incapable of adequately controlling large domestic animals.
As such, there exist a substantial need in the art for an improved animal leash device which is relatively low-cost, easy to carry and manipulate, and possesses sufficient strength to control even large domestic animals.